At yesterday’s special UN Security Council hearing chaired by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, entitled “Upholding the purposes and principles of the UN Charter and strengthening the UN-centered international system,” Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla delivered a hard-hitting and passionate speech, denouncing “ war crimes and genocide” carried out by the Trump administration against his nation. In the speech, published today in the daily Granma Parrilla appealed to all nations, especially those of the Global South, to speak out in defense of multilateralism and international law, centered in the UN Charter, to prevent the “bloodbath” that would result from a U.S. military attack on an island already suffering from the effects of a naval oil blockade and tightening sanctions that are asphyxiating the country.
Rodriguez prefaced his remarks by recognizing China’s leadership in convening the hearing and defending international peace and security and international law; its strengthening of and proposing appropriate reform of the United Nations, and particularly the “democratization, transparency and efficiency of the UN Security Council and empowering of the General Assembly.” The four global initiatives put forward by President Xi Jinping, he said, reflect China’s commitment to building a new multilateral international order, based on a “sovereign, fair and democratic equality,” and the role of the UN Charter.
Rodriguez asserted that it’s challenging to discuss the defense of the central role of the UN, and the promotion of peace and development and safeguarding the international order to avoid new conflicts “in which the strong impose themselves on the weak,” without mentioning the genocide against the Palestinians, the “imperial aggression” against Iran or war in the Mideast. “The U.S. is now in fact breaking apart international peace and security and international humanitarian law as it regards the Republic of Cuba.”
He denounced the U.S. Justice Department’s fraudulent May 20 indictment of former President Gen. Raul Castro, calling it “moral infamy,” and politically-motivated intended only to fool U.S. and foreign citizens 30 years after the fact to get their support for a “military adventure against Cuba, to carry out regime change.” And look at the devastating effect that U.S. sanctions and the energy blockade are having in Cuba, he said. Cutting off oil “is an act of war and genocide which subjects the Cuban people to conditions that threaten their existence and integrity, constituting a cruel and indiscriminate collective publishment which today causes deaths.” Infant mortality, which was once the lowest in Latin America, has doubled from 4.0 to 9.2 deaths per 1,000 births. Life expectancy of children suffering from cancer has dropped from 85% to 65%.
